Obama shows support for gays over California marriage issue

Senator Obama is the presumptive Democratic party nominee for President

Barack Obama has shown his support for the LGBT community in California and took a stand against a constitutional amendment that would overturn the state Supreme Court’s recent decision to legalise same-sex marriage.

Senator Obama, the presumptive Democratic party nominee for President, wrote a letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, which was read at the annual Pride breakfast.

In the letter he states that he fully supports extending full equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under the state and federal law.

Obama wrote: “I am proud to join with and support the LGBT community in an effort to set our nation on a course that recognises LGBT Americans with full equality under the law … that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states.”

Obama also explained in the letter that he felt the issues of LGBT rights have been used to divide society and that it was time to move “beyond polarisation” and live up to the promise of equality by “treating all our citizens with dignity and respect.”

Obama has come under criticism lately for supposedly tailoring his views to the mainstream audience and saying, in an interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper, that “marriage is between a man and a woman.”